The present invention relates to devices for obtaining quarter-tones and other micro-intervals on wind instruments with lateral holes and more particularly on flute mouthpiece instruments, or reed instruments such as clarinets, saxophones, oboes and bassoons.
At present, for playing quarter-tones, the instrumentalist has to learn the same number of new fingerings as for normal playing and in addition all quarter-tone intervals cannot be obtained on all instruments. Moreover the solution consisting of doubling the number of keys is made impossible due to prohibitive costs and handling difficulties.
On certain traditional instruments, such as certain Hungarian bagpipes and reed pipes, it is known to translate the scale by a half-tone on an octave by using a hole made in the instrument wall which, when open, raises all the notes by a half-tone. This method, on which information is given hereinafter, is described in the article by A. BAINES, entitled BAGPIPES, Oxford University Press, 1973.